Marvel‘s Midnight Suns released last Friday, but one fan got a chance to experience the game a year before launch. GI.biz newspaper recounted the story of Luke Wiltshire, a terminal cancer patient in the UK, and what the developer did. Firaxis went through to carry build Midnight Suns came to Wiltshire before his death.
Mr. Luke Wiltshire was diagnosed with neuroblastoma – a form of cancer that develops in nerve cells – at the age of 14. The unfortunate guy spent 9 years fighting this disease before falling into love. “hopeless” situation last year. When he knew that death was approaching, Mr. Wiltshire made a list of things he wanted to do in the remaining time. One of those wishes is to play the game Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
Luke Wiltshire is fan Marvel veteran and avid video game player, so the game combining the social and tactical elements of Firaxis was a dream come true for Wiltshire. The only problem was that the game’s release window was still over a year away at that point, and Wiltshire didn’t have that much time left.
Luckily, the charity supporting Wiltshire and his family — Solving Kids’ Cancer — launched a social media campaign to bring attention to Firaxis. The campaign was a huge success, and the developers at the studio began working on a project that was not yet due for release.
They completed the task in one day, creating the first chapter build of the game for Wiltshire to experience. The build was delivered to fans by 2K’s director of social media management, Mr. Asim Tanvir. During the meeting, Luke Wiltshire had the opportunity to share some of his own designs with Marvel Games creative director Bill Rosemann. Developers from 2K and Firaxis also joined the video call to chat with him.
Luke Wiltshire passed away just weeks after receiving the game on November 12, 2021 at the age of 23. Firaxis paid tribute to the untimely fan by including his name in the credits as a design consultant game and through a tree carving in the game, with the words “Luke W Was Here”.
